I have generalized anxiety disorder; when you have to live with an anxiety disorder, it’s about making your anxiety work with you and not against you.
I am by no means an expert or a therapist (but I’m studying psychology to become one) but I have years of experience living with anxiety and I have been to therapy for 5 years, so I know some ways you can manage anxiety and study in a better way without having it ruin your school career.
First of all, realize that anxiety is not evil; our bodies are made to react in a certain way when something could be dangerous to us. It’s the “fight or flight” reaction. When you feel anxious, this fight or flight mechanism is activated, even if there is nothing dangerous in the environment.
My therapist always said to me that the goal, when in therapy for an anxiety disorder, it’s not to eliminate completely the anxiety but to keep it under control, so it’s active only on adequate situations. (When there is an actual danger, not just a pile of homework that you don’t know how to deal with.)
So, you have anxiety and you realize that you need to conquer it and control it. How?
Seek help: obviously, the best option is going to therapy. I do understand, though, that that may be not possible for anyone. I live in a country where healthcare is free, so it has been easy for me; also, my parents pay for my therapy and they are very supportive of it.
There isn’t only therapy: for some people, meds could work, if there is a chemical unbalance in your brain. (Always remember, tho, that in anxiety disorders meds are very rarely used alone without therapy.)
Other things you can and should do: talk about it with your parents, peers, friends; try and see if there are counseling programs at your school/college; seek for people with the same issue, that you can relate to. Read forums, get informed, become an expert on your condition. An official diagnosis is better, but if you prefer to self-diagnose I want you to be super informed, I want you to know everything about it.
Understand your symptoms: what happens when you have anxiety? You breathe faster, your heartbeat is augmenting, you tremble? Learn what are your symptoms, so you can anticipate the anxiety and calm yourself in time before the anxiety attack even comes. Not everyone’s anxiety disorder is the same, it manifests in many symptoms,, concerning both body and mind. Here is a list.
Never start working or studying when you are feeling your symptoms. Stop and calm yourself, distract yourself and return to what you were doing when you feel better; you don’t work well if you are anxious.
Be organized: to manage anxiety, to avoid feeling overwhelmed by all the things you need to do, be an organization master. Get a planner, make a bullet journal if decorating it calms you. Write down everything you need to do, everywhere you need to be. Decide when you are going to do these things and stick to it. If it helps, write down every single thing. Even eating, if that helps. Plan your meals, your shopping. Having an organized life will avoid you hours of laying in bed, doing nothing because you have no clue where to start, struggling with anxiety while works piles up.
Make lists for everything. Lists are your best friends.
Find a calming method: what calms you down? Breathing, looking at specific images or objects, talking with someone that calms you down and you trust? Identify what works for you and practice it when you feel the anxiety coming.
Go here to see a compilation of calming pictures and gifs.
Read here about a very interesting method.
Build a safe space in your mind.
Surround yourself with things that do not make you anxious: don’t take a class if it makes you feel too much anxious; drop classes that stress you out. Do not hang out with toxic people, you’ll feel worse. (Check out my post about how toxic friends affect your life). Do not buy a lot of fancy stationery and notebooks, having too much unused stuff could make you anxious because you don’t know what to do with it.
Declutter your life; I will also make a list of things you should be decluttering soon. Honestly decluttering makes me feel so calm and in control.
Stop being a perfectionist; accept failure, it’s a part of life. Make realistic goals, understand your limits and you will feel more at peace. Perfection is an unreachable goal that will only make you more anxious.
Reach high, but take into consideration your possibilities. If you are not ready for something, don’t do it, it’s not the right timing and failing will put you in a bad mental place.
Build a toolbox in your mind: put in it your symptoms list, your calming methods, a picture of your safe space, your stable organization method. Remember that you have all of this to help you get through life. When in need, go through the box and use the items in it. You need to think about all of these resources you made for yourself as the things you need to manage your anxiety and live a quieter life.
This was supposed to be more about studying, but it became more about life in general, but I don’t mind. I hope my advice was useful. Personally, all of this works for me and I am a textbook anxious, I check all the boxes on the DSM diagnosis. If you ever wanna talk about your anxiety and your experiece or you want some more advice, feel free to contact me.
how to get rid fo toxic friends.
my experience with a learning disorder.
ways toxic friends affect your life.
how i take my math notes (as a dyscalculic).
how to write an analytical/scientific essay.
useful programs for school.